Riku Rides the Polar Express
by hopefuldreamer1991
Summary: On Christmas Eve night, Sora is given a gift that magically transports them to Earth, giving the group the chance to travel to the North Pole by riding the legendary Polar Express. Riku is skeptical, however, given he has not believed in Santa Claus since he was a child. Suspicious, he decides to follow his friends and tag along. Will he ever find his Christmas spirit?
1. That Fateful Christmas Eve Night!

**Hey guys, I decided to do a side project for the holidays! After writing last year's Christmas special ****_What is this Christmas?, _****I decided to carry on with the tradition this year (not to be confused with ****_Give Me Your Heart for Christmas_****, which is one of my longer ongoing stories that I plan on completing this month).**

**Ever since seeing KH2, I've always wondered what Riku's reaction to seeing that Santa Claus is real would be, so I wondered how this should be done. I thought riding the Polar Express would be perfect for this! I decided not to put it as a crossover because the only returning character is the conductor, and I wanted this story to be easier to find for my regular readers.**

**This will be a short story, likely no less than 3 chapters and no more than 5. I hope you enjoy :)**

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Riku Rides the Polar Express

We were out looking at the big holiday display on Destiny Islands that Christmas Eve night. Walking through the park, I was amazed at all I saw around me. Beautifully decorated Christmas trees towered high above us, and light displays were everywhere. Frogs were leaping into ponds, gingerbread men were dancing, and elves were working in Santa's workshop. Being here put me in the Christmas spirit (not that I hadn't been for weeks, but my love for Christmas is another story, haha), and it made me really look forward to the next day's events.

After all, this was my first Christmas on the Destiny Islands.

"Woah..." Sora said, taking everything in.

"It's lovely," a visibly pregnant Kairi responded.

"Riku?" I asked my fiancé. He had a blank, almost sad, expression on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" He responded. "Oh. right. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Those lights are great and all," Sora started as he looked in the direction of where children were lining up to sit on Santa's lap in the outside Christmas village, "But they made Santa way too tall! He's much shorter in person!" I had to giggle at Sora's reaction to the lights. The moment I had first met him, I fell in love with his happy and spirited personality. He always made me laugh.

You see, I've only lived on the island for the last several months. After Riku proposed, I packed up my stuff and moved into Kairi's old apartment. She was now married to Sora. Even though they and Riku have known each other almost their entire lives, I never felt like I had trouble fitting in. I think it may have to do with each of our personalities. Sora is the silly, funny, and positive one in the group. Kairi is the sweet and kind one. Riku is the serious, protective, yet caring one. And my personality is kind of a combination of all three of theirs. Because of this, I never had a problem clicking with any of them.

"Right," Riku responded, "Just like how the Easter Bunny is made of chocolate, right?"

"But he is real, Riku! I saw him myself!"

"Right. Just like how you were able to fly, huh?" he joked.

"I did that, too!"

"Yeah, sure."

"Gee, looks like someone has lost their Christmas spirit," Kairi giggled.

"Yeah," I answered, "Did you get a lump of coal in your stocking as a kid?!" I joked.

"Look, I like Christmas," Riku responded, "I just don't believe in imaginary toy makers flying through the sky and going down our chimneys."

"Santa doesn't make the toys, his elves do!"

"Oh, sorry. My bad," Riku answered sarcastically.

"Gee, way to kill his spirit," I said as I playfully punched his arm.

"Alright. Let's go ahead and head out."

* * *

As we left the park, we headed towards Sora and Kairi's apartment where we were planning on exchanging our gifts and enjoying some champagne (except for Kairi, for obvious reasons) and Christmas cookies. While Sora and Riku walked in front of us, Kairi and I began to talk.

"So do you think Riku will like it?" I asked as a took a sip of my hot apple cider.

"Of course Krissa," Kairi answered, "I think that's a great gift idea! What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"Early," I answered, "While it's still dark." Early on Christmas morning, I was planning to fly to my hometown on Earth to spend Christmas with my family.

"That will be fun."

"Absolutely, especially since this is the last Christmas in which we will perform all of our usual traditions." I was really looking forward to this Christmas, not just because this was my first time going home since moving to the islands, but because this would be the last time I did Christmas the same way I had done it my entire life: waking up so early and opening presents at my parents house while it was still dark, going to my grandparents' house afterwards while still wearing our pajamas, eating a breakfast of sausage patties and biscuits, opening our presents in the living room, eating a prime rib lunch, and spending the entire day together. It was my favorite day of the year.

"Not that I'm not looking forward towards Riku and me making our own traditions," I quickly added, "but I will miss our usual ones." I would be lying if I said that I wasn't excited about spending the rest of my Christmases with my soon to be husband, but I did want to take my time enjoying what was likely my last full-time Christmas alone with my family.

"I understand," Kairi said, "Change can be difficult to get used to."

"Yeah."

"Sora, don't touch that, you don't know where it came from!" we could hear Riku yell. He and Sora were already by their front door.

"Yes I do, It says so right here in the note. From Mr. C!" Sora exclaimed.

"Sora...there is no Santa Claus!" Riku exclaimed.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked as we caught up to the doorstep.

"A complete stranger left him this 'gift' with a note," Riku answered.

"It's not a stranger, it's from Santa!" Sora answered.

"Let me see that," I said, grabbing the note. I read it, and I could not blame Riku for being worried. It did seem a bit bizarre:

_Dear Sora, _

_I leave you with this gift that you can share with your friends. _

_All you have to do is shake it. The rest will come to you._

_Use it well. _

_-Mr. C_

"Well that's...interesting," I said. I then noticed Sora was now holding a snow globe. It appeared to have an train inside of the dome, along with a red and white striped pole next to it.

"Someone could have infected it with dark magic or something for all we know," Riku said as a warning.

"Well I trust Santa!" Sora said. He then shook the snow globe.

"SORA NO!" Riku screamed. The next thing I knew, we were being warped somewhere. As I screamed, I heard the others yelling nearby as well. Not only were we moving extremely fast, but the warp we were traveling on was extremely jerky. Finally, we landed on the ground.

"Good job Sora, now you've done it," I heard Riku say near me.

"Look around, it's peaceful!"

"It looks that way, but it could be a trick."

"I think Sora's right Riku, it just looks like a neighborhood." I heard Kairi say.

As I got up, I looked behind us, and I could not help but gasp due to my shock.

"Sora_ is_ right. This is my old neighborhood." We were standing on the street in front of my childhood home. I looked back behind me at my house, which sat up on a small hill in the middle of our neighborhood. There was a fence that went around our backyard, and at the very front of our front yard, there were carefully placed juniper bushes. Assorted bushes also lined up next to our front porch by my one-story house. "And that would also be the home I grew up in." Once I got over my shock, I looked over at the others and gasped at the sight of the others.

"Baby," I said to Riku, "You're hair got longer!" Riku then grabbed his hair in shock. I had never seen him with long hair!

"And Krissa, your hair got longer too!" Kairi exclaimed. I grabbed my hair also in shock. My hair had been slightly shorter than shoulder length ever since I was 19 years old.

"Kairi, you're hair is shorter!" Sora said. Kairi's normal long hair that went to the middle of her back was now about shoulder length.

"And Sora," I said, "You're...shorter." Sora shrugged as he laughed nervously. "I didn't have a growth spurt until later in life," he said bashfully."

"Nice pajamas," I said. We looked at each other and we noticed we were all wearing our night clothes. Sora was wearing red-plaid PJ bottoms with a navy blue robe, Kairi was wearing a purple and green vertical striped long-sleeved night gown with purple slippers, Riku was wearing black sweat pants and a gray robe over his white t-shirt, and I was wearing pink pajama bottoms with red polka dots, a pink robe, and black fuzzy slippers.

"Shouldn't there be snow?" Sora asked. "I always thought Christmases on earth always had snow. At least according to the Christmas specials the King sent me!"

"Sora, this is Georgia," I answered, "If we get only a half inch of snow here in the middle of February, that is considered a miracle!"

"Well this is nice," Riku said, "We're stuck in our teenage bodies wearing only pajamas, and we're lost!"

"We're not lost," I said, "I told you exactly where we were. Why are you acting so grumpy?" I asked. I had never really seen Riku act so cross before.

"I'm not grumpy..." he mumbled. Just then, the ground began to shake heavily.

"EARTHQUAKE!" Sora screamed. We tried to summon our armor to protect ourselves, but we quickly realized that our armor plates weren't even on our arms like the normally would be. We backed up onto my front yard in front of the juniper bushes, then held onto each other.

"Look!" Kairi finally said, pointing down the street to our left. To our surprise, there was not an earthquake. A simple train was merely going down my street.

"I have no idea where that came from considering my street ends in a cul de sac down there..." I said. Finally, the train stopped in front of us.

"Woah..." Sora said.

"Are you kids going to get on the train or just keep gawking?" We heard a voice to our right say, making us gasp. Next to us was what looked to be a train conductor, complete with hat and mustache.

"Where are we going?" Kairi asked.

"Where are we going?!" The conductor responded, "WHY, TO THE NORTH POLE OF COURSE! THIS IS THE POLAR EXPRESS!"

"ALRIGHT! SANTA! AND CHRISTMAS TOWN!" Sora said excitedly as he ran onto the train. "C'MON!"

"Sora, you don't know-" Riku started.

Too late. Sora was on the train. Kairi and I could not help but giggle.

"Well...aren't the rest of you coming?" The conductor asked.

"Yeah," Kairi said as she climbed aboard while the conductor walked onto another set up steps on the car next to us on our right. I began to follow, but I turned around to notice Riku still standing in the front yard.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

"What if this is a trick? Maybe we should think this through."

"Well..." I decided to say something that would definitely get Riku aboard the train, "If it is a trick, others could be in trouble, and they may need our help. Maybe theres heartless...and we will need you to protect us." With that, I walked inside the train and took my seat. I looked out the window to see what my fiancé would do next. As the train began to movie, he jumped onto the steps. I knew he would never leave us behind if he ever thought we may be in danger. As he made his way onto the platform connecting the cars, he stared out into the distance as if something was on his mind.

"Perfect," I said.

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**Just in case any of my regular readers are wondering, this story takes place either during or after _Destiny and Dawn: Book III,_ I really haven't decided yet lolI know I haven't even finished book one yet...but I didn't want to wait until then to write this :) Anyways, Sora and Kairi are about 24 in this book, and Krissa and Riku are 25. In case you haven't figured it out, they took their KH2 appearances on Earth. Anyways, why is Riku acting like such a grump?! Stay tuned and it will be explained! Since I want this finished before Christmas, expect the next chapter to be up soon!**

**If you like where this is going, or if you think I need to improve, just let me know in a review :) (bedahdahdeedoo!)**


	2. The Nonbeliever

**I had to make a few changes to the first chapter because a couple things did not fit in with Destiny and Dawn chronologically. You won't know it until you read book 2 whenever I get that posted, but I wanted to make these changes now. Basically its important information about Sora and Kairi, so you'll want to go check it out. I think I just got so excited writing the first chapter that I forgot to think about those details.**

**From here on out, we switch between Krissa and Riku's POV.**

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"Are you coming inside or are you just going to stand there?" I heard the conductor ask my fiancé.

"Oh. Right." Riku made his way inside the train car and sat down beside me.

"About time," I said jokingly.

"No heartless around," he answered. He looked around, noticing all of the other passengers inside the car were children. "Why are we on a train with all of these kids?" Being a teacher, I had no problem being around kids; however, Riku was pretty...cautious around them. It made me wonder how he would react to Sora and Kairi's baby that was due in just a few months.

"Nope!" Sora exclaimed as he turned to face Riku and I from the seat in front of us. "The kid across from us said this was Santa's train! We're really going to the North Pole!" Kairi and I could not help but laugh at his enthusiasm. Even as a future dad, he was the same old Sora.

"You really believe this is Santa's train?" Riku asked.

"Of course I do!" I saw Riku look towards Kairi for help, but she nodded in agreeance with Sora.

"It's looking that way, Riku." Riku then turned to me.

"You too?"

"Well, the train did come out of nowhere. The part of the street it came down from was a dead end, so that alone is enough proof for me." To me, it was funny that I was saying this. I was told that Santa Claus wasn't real at the age of 11, which seemed rather old to be believing at the time where I grew up. Being on this train felt real, and previous childhood fantasies were coming to life. It really was a dream come true!

"What if it's a trap?"

"You need to relax, Riku!" Sora said.

"Tickets, please," The conductor said as he appeared next to us. One by one, each of us had our tickets hole-punched wildly.

"E S?" I said, looking at my ticket. Sure enough, the letters 'E' and 'S' were on opposite sides of the ticket.

"G E," Kairi said. Her letters were side by side on her ticket.

"I got E N," Sora said, noticing his letters were also side by side.

"What did you get?" I asked Riku. He passed me his ticket.

"L E."

"I wonder what these letters mean?" Kairi asked.

"Maybe it's some kind of code," Sora replied.

"Look!" a child yelled as he pointed out the window.

"Wow..." was all I could say. Outside, the snow was falling. The lights and decorations of the town really made the atmosphere feel Christmasy.

"Cool..." Sora added.

"It's beautiful," Kairi said.

"This train must move fast," I said, "If we're in an area that snows." I looked at a sign in the distance. It read 'Elizabethtown, Kentucky.' "We really are on a magic train. This is a big country, so the fact we made it this far already is pretty amazing."

"I need to go to the bathroom," Riku said, and he got up and walked away.

"Riku," I said worriedly, but he didn't hear me. "I don't understand. He doesn't usually act so grumpy."

"He gets kind of funny around Christmastime." Sora said.

"Huh? But why?"

"'We don't know. He never talks about it," Kairi said.

"He was the one who told me that Santa wasn't real when we were kids," Sora said, "and I believed him until I met Santa for myself."

"Interesting," was all I could say. Truth was, it hurt me to see Riku acting this way. I hated seeing him so unhappy, and that in turn killed me more than anything else. I did not know how to express this, however. I have never had an easy time communicating or showing any type of negative emotions. I always kept these things inside.

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**Riku's POV:**

I stared at myself in the mirror as I washed my hands. I sighed as I really did not want to go back out there. All three of them were acting overly enthusiastic and unconcerned about the who situation. What if this was some kind of trick? Were they all really convinced that we were going to visit Santa?

Of course, I couldn't blame them for being excited about the holiday. I remember when it used to be fun: I used to make homemade cards, decorate the tree with my parents, and enjoy opening gifts with my family around.

That was all in the past. Over time, those memories had become more and more painful.

Still, I felt guilty for acting so negative and spoiling their celebration. How would they know how I felt? I never told them because I didn't want to ruin their Christmas with my problems. I figured I would just go and face the music. I turned around to open the door.

"Locked!" I exclaimed after I could not open the door to the restroom. "Or the door is jammed." I tried to push on it harder with my shoulder, but it didn't budge. I tried to summon my keyblade to unlock the lock, but to my surprise, it did not appear in my hand.

_Now I'm convinced this is a trick_, I thought. I looked around the room to try and find a way out. I noticed a vent above my on the ceiling, so I decided to go out that way. Once I made my way through, I felt a blast of freezing cold air hit like a ton of bricks. The vent led up to the roof on the train.

"Ugh...Merry Christmas..." Being used to island life, needless to say I did not like being outside in a blizzard, especially without a coat. I figured I would just walk over to the other side of the train car, climb down, and go through the entrance and back into the warm air. It was then I caught a stench of...something in the air. Something foul. I looked to my left, and their was a man sitting by a fire, right there on top of the train. He looked like he was cooking something, and I believed that to be the source of the terrible smell. Unfortunately for me, I had to walk past him and his stinky pot to get where I needed to go.

"Where's you going on a night like tonight?" He asked.

"I could ask you the same thing, seeing you're sitting here on top of a train in the middle of a snowstorm."

"I rides this train every year, and I've seen all kinds of weather. Snow, rain, sleet, hail, wind. You name it, I've been through it."

"Every year, huh? So tell me, where exactly does this train go?"

"They didn't tell ya? That should be the first thing they do. This giant hunk of metal is headed North towards Santa's pad."

"Yeah. They mentioned that."

"They did tell ya. Ah, I get it. Nonbeliever. Interesting. You reminds me of the Hero Boy that I met several years ago. Sit down, I'll make yous a cup of joe."

I looked down into his bucket of 'joe.' Basically, it looked like chunky coffee. "Uh...no thank you."

"So you're here on the magical train. What's keeping you from buying into all your surroundings?"

"I really don't want to talk about this. I don't even know you?"

"You saying you don't trust me?"

"Well...yes, but that's not exactly what I meant." I took a deep sigh before I continued. "When I was a kid, something...tragic...happened to me not long before Christmas...that's all I'm going to say..."

"We all have a past kid, but what matters it how you live for today."

"It's a little more complicated than that."

"You don't have to say no more. Just keep in mind that the big man up North can't fix everything."

With that, I decided to keep walking, partly because I did not want to think about these types of thoughts, and partly because I was about to become frostbitten on every part of my body. As I walked, I could her him play the accordion. The tune sounded like _Good King Wenceslas. _When I turned around for just one second, however, the man by the fire was gone. Pots and all.

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**The next chapter should be the last! Stay tuned!**


	3. Heartbroken

**I typed up this chapter a long time ago and intended to make this the final chapter to be posted a few days before Christmas, but I ended up falling ill and getting a 103 degree fever. I then went to finish it on Christmas night, but my internet server was down for whatever reason. I decided to go ahead and post what I have written thus far in this chapter before it expires in my doc manager. As to when I'll post the real chapter, I don't know if I'll just go ahead and write it out or wait until Christmas 2014. Let me know what you would rather see :)**

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**Riku's POV**

As I made my way back onto the train, I noticed Sora and Kairi staring at something out the window. What it was, I didn't know, but I thought it must have been pretty cool for Kairi to be staring at it along with Sora. Krissa was surrounded by a bunch of smaller children, and they appeared to be playing some sort of game. This didn't surprise me seeing she was a teacher and kids loved her. Me, not so much. Krissa said that would change once we one day had kids, but I wasn't so sure. I was already nervous enough about meeting Sora and Kairi's kid! Slowly, I made my way back to my seat.

"Hey," Krissa greeted me, "That sure was a long bathroom break."

"Yeah, I got locked in."

"What?"

"I had to go through the vent, walk on top of the train, and go in through the other entrance."

"Must have been freezing."

I looked outside. We were on top of a bridge on what looked to be icy ocean water. "Not at all."

"Look over there!" Sora said as he pointed to the sky. I'm not going to lie, it truly took my breath away. Beams of colorful lights were dancing in the sky.

"It's beautiful," Kairi said.

"I finally go to see the Northern lights," Krissa said softly.

"The Northern lights," the conductor said as he suddenly appeared behind us, "always showing up in a...Northern direction. And do you see the lights over there beyond it? That...is the North Pole."

"Here we come Santa!" Sora exclaimed.

"Keep in mind that this could still be a trick," I said cautiously.

"Don't worry so much," Krissa said, "it will be great!"

Eventually, we made it into what looked to be a little town. Had it not been freezing outside, I thought it would have been any other world I have visited in the past.

"ELVES!" I heard Sora scream. As everyone looked out the window, at least hundreds of little men were walking in one direction, looking like they were all going to an individual destination. Finally, the train came to a halt, and we made are way off.

"Okay, line up!" the conductor said, "Two lines, even birthdays on the right, odd on the left, let's go!" After seeing everybody so happy and joyful with what Krissa called Christmas spirit, I began to feel guiltier than I did before. It wasn't fair to drag her or my friends along with my grief. I figured now would be as good a time as any to be honest with my future wife.

"Hey Krissa," I said as we lined up in our lines.

"Yeah?"

"I feel I should apologize. I've been a grump, and that isn't fair to you or anyone else."

"That's okay, this is a stressful time of year for a lot of people."

"Thanks, but that wasn't exactly what I was talking about, though."

"Well, what's the matter?"

"When I was a kid, I loved Christmas. I loved baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and singing carols with my grandparents."

"You sang?!"

"Hard to believe, isn't it? When I was seven years old, however, my grandfather, who I was extremely close to, passed on Christmas Eve. I was crushed."

"Aww Riku..."

"Let me finish. The next year, I wrote Santa that I just wanted my grandfather back, and I told him when I sat on his lap at the mall the same thing, but he told me that he could not bring back the dead. That's when I stopped believing in Santa Claus."

"Woah...," Sora said, "That's why you told me he wasn't real."

"Exactly."

"Babe, I'm sorry you have to carry around this pain every Christmas."

"Well, the funny thing is, I never let it go because I didn't want to. But seeing everybody so happy tonight made me want to...change."

"I don't think you can completely let go of his memory; however, every year when we're married, we'll be making new memories and starting new traditions. I believe happiness in the future will help heal these old wounds."

"I look forward to it."

With that, Krissa took my hand, and we walked further into town to see the big man himself.


End file.
